How To Make Gorgeous Nature Sun Catchers

Easy suncatchers for your toddlers, baby, or kids to make this spring. These diy nature sun catchers turn out gorgeous and are very simple. These suncatcher craft instructions are easy to follow and perfect for preschool or play dates.

Full Tutorial On How To Make Gorgeous Nature Sun Catchers

Make beautiful sun catchers with your kids for any season!

Not much says “spring is in the air” more than a beautiful sun catcher. There are a million ways to make nature sun catchers but were going to cover three easy and kid friendly versions today. Summer is now well into the air! Although up here in the Pacific Northwest it took a little longer to reach us it felt like this year. I was longing to involve the kids in a few crafts centered around a nature walk. A quick look around the house for inspiration and I had it! Contact paper sun catchers. Have you ever made these? They are so simple and beautiful, they really brought the little blossoms and colors indoors without fear of the dreaded fruit fly attack that can center around almost anything alive in these parts. How pretty are these final products for you?

How to make contact paper sun catchers

The first step is to take the kiddos outside in search of small, relatively flat, beautiful pieces of nature. My littles gathered dandylions, leaves in multiple colors, grass and moss seeds, moss, leaves in fun shapes, and as many types of tiny flowers they could wrap their little fingers around. Everything was damp from the rain earlier that day so we spread their treasures on paper towels to pat dry.

I peeled back a large piece of contact paper and let the creativity flow. Some parts seemed to have a theme: like types of moss. Some flowers remained in one piece while other petals were sprinkled throughout.

Here is Jade working her creative magic.

Once the natural art is completed, cut an equal size of contact paper and peel the back and place on top of the first, sandwiching in all those little treasures. While you may be tempted to completely fill the paper we found it’s best to aim for the art very flat and having a bit of space between most pieces. Otherwise the contact paper has a bit of trouble adhering. You want to be able to cut this large sheet into pieces that fit multiple rings.

1. Embroidery Ring Nature Sun Catcher

To make this you will need an embroidery ring and some sort of string for hanging. Place the large ring on the art you’d like to see and draw a circle surrounding the ring. I advise cutting a bit of excess around the ring as you can always make it smaller once you start, bigger is not an option. Place the nature paper over the small ring and wedge the large ring on top. I’m not going to lie, it took me a handful of tries to get it to lay flat and in the circle. Once happy with the appearance tighten the outer ring and trim any excess. Tie a string (we went with a magenta yarn) around the tightening portion of the rings and voila! A beautiful, eye catching, little wonder made by your own sets of little hands.

2. Canning Ring Nature Sun Catchers

For these little beauties all you need is a few Mason Jar rings. We used multiple sizes. Trace the outer edge of the ring onto your nature paper. Don’t be afraid to cut too much. Again, you can always make it smaller… bigger will never happen and you may have to toss your kids’ favorite flower! We found that when trimmed correctly these little gems pop right into the ring, no tape necessary to hold it in place. However one was a bit loose so we secured with two small pieces of clear tape inside the ring and you’d never know. My first thought for hanging was puncturing a hole in the jar lid and hanging from that method but I went even simpler and more baby friendly. Using yarn we tied all the way around the lid which holds surprisingly well. I did find that when I only used a double knot and then trimmed the string it untied. 🙁 But a simple retie with a triple knot solved that problem.

If you want to get super crafty and get extra crunchy points you can go even further into the nature motif as we did and find a nice stick to paint and make a mason jar ring mobile! Using three of our sun catcher lids, a painted stick, and a couple pretty scraps of ribbon we easily created this easy masterpiece! Perfect to hang in the girls’ window!

3. Nature Sun Catcher Cutouts

With the last bit of our beautiful nature and only a piece of construction paper we stayed with the spring theme and made a sun catcher butterfly! (I don’t have the shot of that one after we put it on the construction paper… sorry!) You can make any shape cutout from construction paper and cut the nature paper to fit behind. Secure with a bit of clear tape and voila! Let your kids’ creativity run wild with this one! For those with a crafty heart but not always the craftiest hand I’ve found it works best if you cut a simple shape from the inside of the construction paper (think rectangular frame shape, heart, star, etc.) and tape a large rectangular piece of the nature paper behind! It takes some guesswork out of the cutting.

And that’s it! I hope you have fun, get your hands a little dirty, and spend the spring and summer months (if not longer) smiling as you catch a glimpse of your precious, crafty, sun catchers hanging around your house. How about you guys? Any other easy and fun sun catcher ideas for the kids? Do you have any other fun sun catcher mobile ideas? Let me know in the comments below!

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Meet Allie of Vigor It Out

About Vigor It Out

This blog is created by Allie LaVigueur. I’m an active, healthy, playful, creative, DIY, frugal, sporty gal striving to bring you information and inspiration for all things fitness, health, kids, family, and Do It Yourself. I can’t wait for you to get to know me better as I bring you loads of creativity, tips and tricks, awesome activities, and lots more!